


Driving in Circles

by pictureswithboxes



Series: Modern AU In Which The Heathers Are A Group Of Mean Lesbians And Veronica Feels Like Jane Goodall [2]
Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28672140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pictureswithboxes/pseuds/pictureswithboxes
Summary: "Heather wasn’t going to let Duke and Mac sulk all day. Mac liked car rides, Duke liked any opportunity to read, and Heather was the one in control of the car. It seemed like this problem had a very simple solution."
Relationships: Heather Chandler/Heather Duke/Heather McNamara, Heather Chandler/Heather McNamara
Series: Modern AU In Which The Heathers Are A Group Of Mean Lesbians And Veronica Feels Like Jane Goodall [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2090151
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Driving in Circles

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first oneshot offshoot for this series, I'm very excited about it!
> 
> "Understanding The Heathers" takes place in September of their senior year, this takes place in late April of their junior year. 
> 
> There are references to depression in this fic. it's not explicitly stated, but Mac and Duke are in the middle of depressive episodes. This fic isn't about one person curing another person's depression, it's about one girl doing her best to make her two best friends less miserable.

The Water Project was a tradition for every AP Biology class at Westerburg High School in which the students had to break off into groups of at least three, find a body of water, and collect samples to test over time. The assignment lived in infamy among AP Biology students due to the travel it required, as well as the added pressure of picking a good body of water to observe. No one wanted to be the one to end up with the boring specimens. 

“HEATHER!” Heather Chandler shouted out the drivers side window of her car before honking the horn several times in a row. “GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE! WE HAVE TO GO!”

“Why can’t we just knock, Heather?” Mac sighed as she leaned her forehead against the window. “I’m starting to think you just like to shout.”

Heather frowned a little before honking the horn again. Mac had been feeling extra down for the past couple days, and none of what Heather thought were surefire ways to help lift her spirits were helping. 

“If we knock, we might have to see her parents.” Heather said as Duke exited the house. She smirked and honked her horn one more time, making Duke jump a little.

“If that door is locked when I get to there, I’m dropping out of the group and you guys will be on your own.” Duke announced as she reached the car. 

Heather unlocked the car doors. Why did Duke have to think of everything?

“Bitch.” Duke muttered as she opened the back door. 

“You’re in a good mood.” Heather rolled her eyes before putting her car in reverse. 

“Fuck you.” Duke snapped, pulling out her book and stretching out in the backseat. “Let’s just get some water from the creek, take our pictures, and then go home. This is a bullshit project anyway.”

Heather frowned and pulled out of the driveway. Duke was certainly in rare form that day was well.

The plan was to go to the creek, take photos of themselves getting the water to document the process, and then everyone goes home, but Heather wasn’t going to let Duke and Mac sulk all day. Mac liked car rides, Duke liked any opportunity to read, and Heather was the one in control of the car. It seemed like this problem had a very simple solution. 

Duke and Mac would be miserable no matter what, if given the chance, they’d just choose to be miserable in their respective homes. Alone. Heather wasn’t about to let that happen. Misery was supposed to love company, right?

“We’re not going to the creek.” Heather said simply. 

“Isn’t that the point of this trip?” Mac muttered with a scowl. 

“No, the point of the trip is to get water for Bio.” Heather replied. “So we’re gonna get the water, but not from the creek.” 

Mac let out a huff. 

“Where are we going, then?” Duke grumbled. 

“There’s a river halfway to my parents’ lakehouse.” Heather said, not bothering to look away from the road. She knew that Duke was scowling and didn’t need to turn around to see it. “Everyone goes to the fucking creek, we’re not everyone. So we’re gonna go to that river and take some cute pictures while doing science.”

“It’s an hour to that river.” Duke said, her voice was quiet.

“You want us to go on a two hour roadtrip to go get a jar of water?” Mac’s voice was barely there. 

“That’s fucking crazy!” Duke kicked the back of Heather’s seat. 

“Do that shit again and you’re walking home.” Heather snapped. 

“This is considered kidnapping, you know.” Duke continued, she was just working herself up at this point. “We got in your car under false pretenses and now you’re taking us to a secondary location against our will. Kidnapping.”

“Oh my god, just shut up.” Mac whispered to herself. Heather wasn’t supposed to hear that, there was no way Duke had heard. 

“Just calm down, Heather.” Heather said after taking a breath. “I’m not kidnapping anyone, and I’m buying you guys lunch, so stop being such a pillowcase.”

They drove in silence for twenty minutes or so, save for the radio. This was ridiculous. Mac wouldn’t stop sulking and Duke’s reading was so obnoxious, it had to be passive aggressive. No one needed to flip through pages as loudly as Duke was. 

“That’s enough.” Heather exclaimed, slapping the steering wheel. She turned off the radio, earning an annoyed glare from Mac. “We’re not going to just sit here miserably. We’re gonna actually talk.” 

“Pass.” Duke said, Heather could hear her flip the page of her book.

“Nope.” Heather snapped. “No passing. Either you talk to us, or you read the book out loud for us. Those are your options.”

Duke sighed. “Fine.” Heather glanced in the rearview mirror as Duke flipped to the beginning of her book. “ Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world...”

Heather glanced at Mac and held back a sigh, she was still leaning her head against the window and staring blankly out the window. Mac usually liked it when Duke read outloud to them, she found Duke’s voice soothing somehow. Heather couldn’t relate. 

“If all you’re going to do is sulk, you can sulk in the backseat.” Heather snapped as they pulled up to a red light. 

Mac turned to face Heather, to anyone who didn’t know her well it would look like her face was blank, but Heather knew better. Mac was trying to see if Heather meant business. Heather set her jaw and met Mac’s gaze. 

“I’d hurry and get to the back before the light turns green.” Heather said. 

Mac sighed and unbuckled before climbing into the back and flopping next to Duke. “Hi, Heather.” She grunted. 

“Hi, Heather.” Duke replied dully before returning to her book. “No, when I go to sea, I go as a simple sailor, right before the mast, plumb down into the forecastle, aloft there to the royal mast-head...”

Heather smirked as the light turned green. Mac had chosen to lean against Duke in the backseat rather than the window. 

She drove for a while longer, listening to Duke read from her book. The back roads were mostly empty, allowing Heather to take in some of the sights of nature as she drove. It didn’t take long for her to find the right part of the riverbank to park on, Heather picked a nice spot with the least amount of foliage for them to push through. 

“We’re here.” Heather said as she turned off the ignition and grabbed her backpack. “Let’s go.”

Mac and Duke groaned and climbed out of the car slowly, following Heather down to the riverbank. Once Heather got to the bank, she rooted through her bag and pulled out their specimen jar along with the polaroid camera they were going to use to document their process. She pointed the camera at Mac and Duke before snapping a photo of them. Duke flipped Heather off in response while Mac simply rolled her eyes. 

“Get in the water and look happy.” Heather ordered, pointing to the river.

Mac kicked off her shoes before heading toward the water while Duke followed. Mac got into the river and Duke sat on the bank, neither of them bothered to look happy though. Heather sighed and headed down toward them, she passed Mac the jar and held up the camera. 

“Smile.” Mac forced a grin as Heather took a photo. 

“I’ll measure how deep the water is if you write it down.” Heather said to Duke as she put the photo away. 

“Fine.” Duke replied, taking the camera from Heather. 

It didn’t take too long to get all the necessary information collected and the jar filled. The weather would have been perfect for spending the day at the river. Normally Heather would not want to waste such a wonderful day, but considering how adamant Duke and Mac were about turning this fun trip into a dreary affair, it would have been impossible to convince the other two to stay a little longer. 

So there Heather was, driving down the road with Mac and Duke in the backseat. Duke began to read aloud from her book as soon as Heather started the ignition. Heather looked at Duke and Mac in the rearview mirror, smiling a little at the way Duke and Mac had curled into each other. They still looked miserable, but slightly less so. 

“I’m a woman of my word.” Heather said after twenty minutes of driving and listening to Duke read. She pulled into the parking lot of a tiny roadside dive restaurant that they frequented whenever they came home from Heather’s family’s lakehouse. “What do you guys want?”

Both Mac and Duke simply shrugged as they got out of the car. They sat down at one of the outdoor tables, Heather fought the urge to roll her eyes at how much they were sulking. It was like they were determined to have a bad time. 

Heather entered the restaurant and smiled at the chef behind the counter before ordering their usuals. A grilled cheese for Mac, a large order of fries that she and Duke would share, and three milkshakes, one chocolate, one vanilla, and one strawberry. Heather shuddered every time she ordered a strawberry, but Duke liked them for whatever horrible reason, so that’s what she was going to get. 

It didn’t take long for their order to be ready, Heather took the tray and brought it out to where Mac and Duke were sitting. They still looked miserable, Duke wasn’t even bothering to read her dumb book at this point. Heather set the tray down in front of them before sitting down. 

“I can’t believe that you’d drink that pink shit.” Heather said, sliding the strawberry milkshake toward Duke. 

Duke scoffed and took a sip. “It’s not my fault if you have no taste.” 

Heather bit the inside of her cheek to avoid smiling. Finally Duke had a little more fight in her. “ _ I’m  _ the one with no taste?” She said, grabbing her chocolate shake. 

“You dip your fries in your shake.” Mac muttered as she took a sip of her vanilla. 

“It’s good!” They’d argued about this before, but had never actually reached a real conclusion. 

“We’ve been through this before.” Duke sighed. “You think it’s good, Heather thinks it’s disgusting to have bits of fries fall into your shake, and I literally do not care. No one is going to budge, so can we just drop it?”

“Fine, just this once.” Chandler took a couple fries from the basket and dipped them into her shake. “It’s really good.” She took a bite and smiled. 

Duke rolled her eyes and Mac scowled. 

Heather sighed. It wasn’t unusual for Mac or Duke to have bad days, but it was rare for their bad days to happen at the same time. Usually if one of them were having a hard time, the other two would do their best to support her. It was hard being the only one determined to have a good time. 

“Thanks for lunch, Heather.” Mac said quietly. 

“No problem, Heather.” Heather replied, taking another sip of her milkshake. “Thanks for agreeing to go to the river instead. I’m sure you guys would rather be at home right now, but.. You know.” Heather shrugged. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Duke said as she pulled a pocket sized notebook out of her bag and wrote something down quickly. 

“Yeah.” Mac nodded, taking a bite of her grilled cheese.

They ate in silence from then on, at least Heather was able to get some kind of responses from Mac and Duke. She counted that as a win. 

Once they were done, they cleared away their mess and piled back into Heather’s car. Heather pulled out of the lot and smiled a little when Duke immediately went back to reading. Moby Dick was a little wordy for Heather’s taste, but Duke and Mac seemed to be doing the closest thing to enjoying themselves as much as they possibly could be. 

It was only when Heather saw the Sherwood City limits sign did she notice that the car had gone silent. She glanced into the backseat and smiled a little. Duke and Mac had fallen asleep at some point and were cuddled into each other. 

She drove in silence until they were a few streets away from their neighborhood. With a small smirk, Heather jerked the steering wheel and made sure to hit a huge pothole, the bump made Mac and Duke’s heads knock together. Heather glanced up at the rearview mirror and held back a laugh at the confused look on their faces. 

“That’s what you get for falling asleep on me.” Heather said, there was no bite in her tone though. 

“Bitch.” Duke muttered, rubbing the side of her head. 

“Do you guys want to go to mine, or should I just take you home?” Heather asked, ignoring Duke. 

The other two were silent. 

“All right, we’re going to mine.” Heather said, turning onto her street. “We’ll watch a movie or something. It’s my turn to pick.” She was going to go with something light. 

It didn’t take long to get to Heather’s house. Her parents were gone, no surprise there, so they had the house to themselves. Heather parked her car and waited for Mac and Duke to get out before turning off the ignition. She watched as Duke headed toward the front door. 

Just as she turned to follow Duke, Heather felt something crash into her from behind. Mac had wrapped her arms around her waist and buried her face between Heather’s shoulder blades. Heather smiled and put a hand over Mac’s. 

“What’s up?” Heather asked. 

“Thank you.” Mac mumbled. “We know what you did today. Heather appreciates it too.”

Heather let out a little laugh. “No problem.” She said. “It’s not a big deal.”

“It is though.” Mac paused for a moment. “You know that I love you, right?”

“I know.” Heather nodded, squeezing Mac’s hand two times. “I love you too.” Heather pulled away after that and turned toward Mac. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Mac shook her head. “But I’m better than I would be if you’d have let me sulk in my bedroom.”

Heather smiled and gestured toward her house. “Let’s head in then, huh?”

Mac nodded once, she leaned forward and pecked Heather’s cheek quickly. “Okay.”

They headed inside the house and met Duke in the main living room, she was curled up on the sofa and cuddled up under at least three blankets. Mac climbed onto the sofa and stole a blanket from Duke while Heather got the TV ready. She decided that Bring It On was a light enough movie and set that up before going over to the sofa. Heather flopped onto the sofa, making sure to land on Duke’s legs. 

“Moby Dick is kind of wordy.” Heather said as the previews played. “But I have to say, I kind of liked forcing you to read out loud in the car.”

“Fuck off.” Duke kicked Heather. “Moby Dick is a masterpiece. It’s not my fault you have a pea sized brain and can’t comprehend how great the story is!”

“I just don’t get how a story about a man hating a fish can go on for over a hundred chapters!” Heather laughed, earning another kick. 

“Whales are mammals.” Mac chirped. 

“Yeah, you moron.” Duke sneered. 

“Whatever.” Heather rolled her eyes. “Let’s just watch the movie.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> As someone who's been very depressed, the best thing my friend ever did for me when I was going through a hard time was to make sure I felt included and knew that I wasn't alone.


End file.
